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Jeffery Carlson—
Flexibility
key to success
Jeffery, Amy and Hayden Carlson.
By Mike Barnett
Editor
Due to a declining water table in this arid region of the Panhandle, Jeffery Carlson has switched to more drought-tolerant cotton over corn as his focus over the past few years.
However, he saw opportunity this year with the price of corn at planting time.
"We were intending on planting a lot less corn...like 50 acres," said this 31-year-old farmer from Hereford. "We ended up planting over 500 acres between me and my dad and my brother, because of the rising price of corn in the spring. We ended up contracting our corn. And then we sold it the next day."
That find of flexibility has allowed Jeffery to grow the family operation at a fast clip the last eight years.
He started out after graduating from West Texas University by sharecropping a section of land with his dad, and leasing another half section of wheat acreage. His brother later joined the operation, and they took over a lease for 1,100 acres of farmland, which they purchased in 2002. They also leased and purchased a section and a half of grass, where they run their 115 head of mother cows. This last year, their youngest brother partnered with his siblings, and the three bought a half section of land just north of Hereford.
"For the last eight years, it's steadily grown," Jeffery says. "To grow like that, to keep up with the costs and everything right now, I think is important. Otherwise, it would be hard to survive out here. It can really get tough at times."
Although the focus is on cotton, Jeffery also grows corn and wheat, as well as running the cow/calf herd and a stocker operation. Black-eyed peas are used as an alternative when cotton is hailed out.
He says this diversification works well. When corn is grown, cattle are grazed on the stalks in the winter. Wheat is raised for the stocker cattle. Some is cut for grain and some is grazed out, depending on the moisture situation.
And the cow/calf operation keeps a steady cash flow available to pay the bills.
A big obstacle to success in the High Plains is the ever-present threat of hail. Last year a storm took out most of his cotton crop—a repeat of 2001, when a hail storm decimated most of his crop.
"Overcoming that, of course, we went to our alternative crop of black-eyed peas," Jeffery says. "It wasn't a big money maker, but it kept me out of a bind."
The biggest problem he faces is the lack of water. The aquifer level, he says, is declining each year.
"It's going to be a very important thing that needs to be worried about as far as a farmer goes, and as far as control from our water districts and state legislators and even on the national level," Jeffery says. "I think it's one of the most important—if not the most important things on farming—is how much water am I going to have on this farm here in 20 years?"
Although his wife, Amy, didn't grow up on a farm, she is no stranger to small-town living. She helps Jeffery with the bookkeeping on his end of the operation, and runs errands for the operation. A former teacher, she's already sharing a love of farming with their young son, Hayden.
"I wasn't raised this way," Amy says. "I have a lot to learn. But I enjoy it. I like watching what happens. You never know what's going to happen day to day. It's a game of wait and see, and figuring what can we do to beat the odds."
Jeffery shares a similar attitude, and confesses that farming's in his blood.
"I love planting in the spring and love being able to watch it grow all the way through the summer, because there are so many changes that take place," he says. "I've really come to notice that in the cotton crop, how it changes so much. You think, one day, `Oh, I don't know what's going to happen—it may not make much over a bale and a quarter.'
"Then, three weeks later, it's made so many changes you might make three bales to the acre. Farming's just something I've always enjoyed."
